The DASHU Hold and Shine Scale: How to Pick a Wax, Pomade or Cream

Most styling products describe themselves in adjectives. Strong. Flexible. Natural. The words sound useful and tell you little, because one brand's strong is another brand's medium.

DASHU packs carry numbers. 7 stylers carry a hold figure and a shine figure, so you can compare two products before you open either. This guide explains what the two numbers mean, how they behave on real hair, and how to get from your own hair to the right jar.

Hold is how firmly a product keeps hair where you put it. A low hold lets hair move and fall back. A high hold fixes a shape, and the shape is still there in the evening. The price of a high hold is work: a firm product is thicker, and it takes longer to warm and spread.

Shine is how much light the finished hair reflects. A low shine looks dry and matte, as if nothing is in the hair. A high shine looks wet or glossy. Shine has nothing to do with strength. A product can be firm and matte, or soft and glossy, and the scale shows both at once.

The waxes and the curl creams are rated out of 6. The pomade is rated out of 5, because it belongs to an older line with its own tin. To compare across the two, read the figure as a share: 4 of 5 is a firmer hold than 4 of 6.

Read the table from both ends. Ultra Holding Power Hair Wax sits at the top for hold, at 6 of 6. Daily Natural Hair Cream sits at the bottom, at 1 of 6. For shine the order changes: Original Super Mat Hair Wax is the driest, at 1 of 6, and Daily Wet Curl Cream is the glossiest, at 6 of 6.

The usual mistake is to buy the strongest product on the shelf. More hold is not better. It is only more. On fine hair a firm wax weighs the hair down and shows as clumps. On thick, straight hair a light cream does nothing at all by lunchtime.

Three things about your hair decide the choice. The first is thickness: how heavy each strand is, and how hard it pushes back. The second is length: a product has to carry more weight on longer hair. The third is the finish you want, dry or glossy. Answer those three and the table narrows to one or two rows.

Thick, straight hair

Thick, straight hair is the hair our stylers were first built for. It stands up, it sticks out at the sides, and it springs back to where it started. It needs a hold in the upper half of the scale. A wax at 5 or 6 will keep a shape through a working day. A cream at 1 or 2 will be gone by noon.

Fine or thinning hair

Fine hair needs less product and a lighter one. Too much wax separates the strands and shows the scalp between them. Take a low or middle hold, use half of what you think you need, and work it in from the back of the head forward so the front gets the least.

Wavy and permed hair

Waves need definition more than hold. A heavy wax pulls a wave straight. The three curl creams sit at 1, 2 and 3 on the hold scale for that reason, and they are covered in their own guide: how to style waves and curls.

The core of the range is three wax jars in three colors. The color is the code. Once you know which jar is yours, you can find it again without reading a word.

Black: Original Super Mat

Original Super Mat Hair Wax is the matte one. Hold is 5 of 6 and shine is 1 of 6, the lowest shine of anything we make. It suits short, spiky and textured cuts where you want the shape and no sign of the product. It costs $14.50 for 3.38 fl oz (100 ml).

What to know before you buy: a firm matte wax can flake if you keep touching your hair through the day, and one buyer needed several washes to get it out. Shape it once and leave it alone.

Blue: Ultra Holding Power

Ultra Holding Power Hair Wax is the firm one. Hold is 6 of 6, the top of our scale, with a shine of 3 of 6. It suits parted, polished styles that have to last a full day. It is also the wax buyers have rated most often: 4.2 from 474 ratings. It costs $14.50 for 3.38 fl oz (100 ml).

What to know: it is thick. Buyers with fine or longer hair say it pulls during application. Warm it well between your palms, and keep it for short to medium cuts.

Brown: Wild Design Muscle Wax

Wild Design Muscle Wax is the one that moves. It has a mud and clay texture, a hold of 4 of 6 and a shine of 3 of 6. It lifts hair from the roots and keeps waves loose. It costs $14.50 for 3.5 oz (100 ml).

What to know: it behaves like a clay and not like a classic hard wax. Buyers who expected a locked shape were disappointed. If a locked shape is what you want, take the blue jar.

Red Pomade answers a different question. Wax builds texture. Pomade lays hair flat and smooth for a comb. Its hold is 4 of 5 and its shine is 3 of 5, which puts it between the brown jar and the blue jar for strength, with more gloss than either.

It is water-based, so it rinses out with water and leaves no grease on a pillow. Take a dime-sized amount, warm it, apply it to parted hair and comb it into shape. The scent is strong: vanilla, leather, amber, musk and sandalwood. Men either like that or do not, and it is worth knowing before the tin arrives. It costs $14.99 for 3.52 fl oz (100 g).

Not everything in the range carries the scale. Four products work beside the stylers, and each has one job.

• Mega Hold Super Hair Spray fixes a finished style. It is a water-based pump mist with a hard hold, and it is our most rated product: 4.2 from 823 ratings.
• Classic Grooming Hair Tonic goes in before the blow dryer. It is a primer that builds volume, and on its own it will not hold a shape.
• Ultra Mat Down Stick Wax is a twist-up stick for side hair and flyaways. You swipe it on, so your hands stay clean.
• Pro Airy Polish Oil adds gloss to wavy or longer hair. It goes on mid-lengths and ends, never on the roots.
• Kids Coconut Hair Wax is a mild wax in a tube, made for children's hair.

These five combine with the numbered products. The common order is tonic first, then heat, then the wax or pomade, then spray.

The same wax behaves differently at two lengths. On hair under two inches, almost all of the strand is near the root, so a firm wax grips well and the shape holds from every angle. This is where the black and blue jars do their best work.

Past three or four inches the weight of the hair starts to argue with the product. A firm wax can still hold the roots, but the ends hang free, and coating them only makes them heavier. On longer hair it works better to drop a step on the hold scale and let the cut carry the shape. The brown jar, the pomade or a cream will look more natural than a hard wax worked through to the tips.

A fresh haircut matters too. Hair that has just been cut is blunt at the ends and stands up more easily. Two or three weeks later the same product seems weaker, because the hair is longer and heavier. Before you decide a jar has stopped working, check when you last saw your barber.

Weather is the test a styler faces after you leave the mirror. Humid air softens hair and pulls a shape down. Sweat does the same from the scalp outward. A hold that was enough in a dry office in January may not be enough on a wet August commute.

There are two ways to answer that. One is to move up the scale for the season, from the brown jar to the blue one. The other is to keep your usual wax and add a fixing layer on top. The second way keeps the finish you like and adds staying power only when you need it.

Mega Hold Super Hair Spray is the fixing layer. It is water-based, and its finish is natural and not stiff, so it does not turn a matte style glossy. Buyers use it most for exactly this: keeping a finished style in place through wind and damp air.

You do not have to pick one number and live with it. Two products can be mixed in the palm or layered on the head, and the result lands between them.

• Matte wax plus a touch of pomade gives a firm hold with a little life in it, for men who find the black jar too dry.
• Clay wax at the roots and cream on the ends lifts the top and keeps longer ends soft.
• Tonic first, wax second is the standard pairing for hair that falls flat. The tonic builds the height and the wax keeps it.

A fingertip. That is the dose for a wax on short hair, and it is less than most men take. You can add a second fingertip. You cannot take one out without washing your hair.

Rub the wax between your palms until you cannot see it. This matters more with the firm jars. A wax that has not been warmed goes on in lumps, and lumps are what people mean when they say a product pulls.

Start at the back of the head and work forward. Your hands carry the most product at the first touch, and the back and the crown can take it. The fringe is thin and sits in front of your face, so it should get what is left.

Push the product down to the roots, then shape. Hold comes from the base of the hair. Wax that only coats the tips will make them heavy and do nothing for the shape.

That advice from dermatologists fits wax well. Once the shape is set, stop. Each extra pass with a comb or a hand breaks the hold a little, and a matte wax can start to flake.

The jars look alike and hold about the same amount, but the sprays and creams come in larger bottles. Price per fluid ounce puts them on one line.

Mega Hold Super Hair Spray is the lowest at $1.89 an ounce, and Ultra Mat Down Stick Wax is the highest at $9.92. The gap says less than it seems. A jar of wax used a fingertip at a time lasts for months. A spray or a tonic is used by the pump and goes faster.

A styler you cannot wash out is a problem by the third day. Old product builds up, the hair turns dull, and the next layer holds worse than the first. So washing out is part of the design. The three jars are silicone-free and made to rinse in one shampoo. The pomade is water-based and rinses with water.

That is where the product is, too. Wax is worked down to the roots, so the shampoo belongs at the roots. Lather the scalp, let the foam run through the lengths as you rinse, and follow with a conditioner.

• Taking a scoop and not a fingertip. Hair turns greasy and flat, and the product gets the blame.
• Skipping the warm-up. Cold wax goes on in lumps and pulls.
• Starting at the fringe. The front ends up heavy and the back gets nothing.
• Choosing by hold alone. A matte wax and a glossy pomade at the same hold give two different haircuts.
• Styling over yesterday's product. Wash it out and start from clean hair.

Buyers ask whether a jar goes off. A wax used a fingertip at a time can sit on a shelf for a long while, so the question is fair.

So the date is ours to set, and it is printed on the pack. Go by that date. Close the lid after use, keep the jar out of a hot car and off a sunny windowsill, and use dry fingers. If the smell or the texture changes, replace it.